Fortunately, thanks to the time she had spent listening to liturgies at the shrines, Laewyn was familiar with the spirits of the woodlands. Unfortunately, as Celaena contorted in her sleep and muttered fevered words in the tongue of sylv...
2025-04-03 12:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostLaewyn was fully dressed when Saphienne and Iolas entered Celaena’s study, sitting by the window in a clean set of clothes identical to those she had worn the day before; she flushed as she exchanged polite greetings with them....
2025-04-01 12:00:14 +0000 UTC View PostOnce the demonstration had concluded, and the doused braziers had been returned inside with the other implements, Almon instructed the three apprentices to sit on the grass and take notes while he lectured them at length on the disciplin...
2025-03-27 13:00:15 +0000 UTC View PostRain poured down across the Eastern Vale, flowing down the sloped centre of the grove and on through the elaborate, winding channels that led to the western river. Saphienne always liked the rain, and when she was little she hadn’t...
2025-03-25 13:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostSaphienne and Celaena found Iolas waiting for them outside the bakery, still plucking flowers from his robes as he leant next to the wide window. Saphienne settled next to him while Celaena went inside.
They said nothing for a time; the ...
2025-03-20 13:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostAlways quick to think of others, Iolas sprang toward Celaena the moment she collapsed within the gravel circle — though not swiftly enough to break her fall. He took her hand in his own and squeezed as he studied her sweating face....
2025-03-18 13:00:12 +0000 UTC View PostThe horror that Saphienne and Iolas felt as they watched the spirit leave the circle was joined by terror, both apprentices swiftly backing away from the creature now inhabiting Celaena. That something terrible had happened to their friend was immed...
2025-03-13 13:00:15 +0000 UTC View PostSaphienne could be forgiven for thinking that all her lessons in magic would take the form of gentle demonstration followed by intellectual discussion. After all, while he had emphasised the wonder and awe in spellcasting, Almon had stressed that mag...
2025-03-11 13:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostThere are months when nothing makes sense, and moments when everything at last comes together — when all the puzzling pieces that were scattered along the path suddenly click into place. Saphienne had one such moment when she arrived before ...
2025-03-06 13:00:13 +0000 UTC View PostIn retrospect, Saphienne realised she had made an assumption: she had counted on the fact that Peacock would be able to read her notes. She realised her oversight while walking with Iolas to their second day of lessons, but said nothing t...
2025-03-04 13:00:12 +0000 UTC View Post“I suppose the solstice festival feels long ago to you, given your age. You don’t remember, then?”
Brought back to the present as Gaeleath spoke, Saphienne stepped forward, as though she were carefully examining the trio of unfinished ...
2025-02-27 13:00:11 +0000 UTC View PostThere had been a puppet show for the children. Saphienne would remember that, nearly five years later.
She had been nine years old, golden haired now summer had arrived, wearing her usual sundress — while all the other chi...
2025-02-25 13:00:14 +0000 UTC View PostWhen the tea was finished, and the wind stirred restlessly through the bushes, the apprentices stood and exchanged farewells. Celaena hugged Iolas and then Saphienne before she took their empty cups, and she departed to the teahouse w...
2025-02-20 13:00:07 +0000 UTC View PostAlthough Saphienne knew the layout of the village well, she had seldom spent time in public spaces other than the library. Her mother disliked going out unless she had to, and children under the age of fourteen were not able to request provisio...
2025-02-18 13:00:15 +0000 UTC View PostSpare a thought for Celaena and Iolas as they sat with Saphienne in the parlour of their master. Although both were older than her – Celaena turned sixteen, Iolas still seventeen – and had prepared for longer to secure their...
2025-02-13 13:00:17 +0000 UTC View PostHello everyone,
Have you ever finished doing something, only to figure out how to do it better, just a little too late? That was me, a week after I launched TEWWBAD: I suddenly realised a si...
2025-02-12 20:39:54 +0000 UTC View PostWalking through the village while under a magic spell was quite unlike anything Saphienne had experienced before. She had never tried wine – despite the many bottles her mother kept under the stairs, she had never once been interested...
2025-02-11 13:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostSaphienne, Celaena, and Iolas were all very excited for their first practical lesson in magic, and when their master stood to begin, the three apprentices straightened up where they sat cross-legged on the floor before him. Yet all of...
2025-02-06 13:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostTo ensure she wouldn’t arrive last, on her first day of lessons Saphienne set out for the wizard’s abode even earlier, still yawning as she made her way through the outskirts of the village. Her lingering tiredness vanished the instan...
2025-02-04 05:30:00 +0000 UTC View PostSee Saphienne as she was becoming, the forthright young girl, fourteen years old. Her hair was once more brown as the earth, and she was still pale — though even these features had begun to lose their resemblance to those of the quiet ch...
2025-02-04 05:15:00 +0000 UTC View PostUpon noticing Faylar waiting in the grove, Saphienne shut the door to her family home slowly, curious about why he was just standing there. He had obviously seen her come outside from where he was waiting, but he had said nothing, p...
2025-02-04 05:10:00 +0000 UTC View PostThe man who emerged from Saphienne’s family home was dressed against the cold, wearing a long, padded coat that was split at the front and back, the woollen scarf around his neck wound very tightly. He carried a saddle over his shoulder...
2025-02-04 05:05:00 +0000 UTC View PostIn her countless hours in the village library, Saphienne had read that elves possessed much better eyesight and hearing than many other creatures, and that most of the shorter-lived peoples considered their senses miraculous. She found the ...
2025-02-04 05:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostBy now you have a faint inkling of the woman Saphienne would become, and the people who shaped her as she grew. Two of the five moments that defined her have been described, and we crossed out of her early childhood some time ago.
So ...
2025-01-28 15:14:28 +0000 UTC View PostOn the night of her first confrontation with the wizard Almon, Saphienne was physically tired, having spent the day working with stone. And yet, as she walked back through the outskirts of the village, she felt wide awake, her thoughts thrumm...
2025-01-28 15:14:20 +0000 UTC View PostThere was no reaction from the other elves when the illusory glade of flowers and floating stars dissolved away, not immediately, their silence made starker by the wintery clearing to which they had returned.
Almon found his voice first...
2025-01-28 15:14:14 +0000 UTC View PostOn the day of Saphienne’s twelfth birthday she had risen with the dawn, bathing herself while her mother still slept. As the first light of day shone through the windows of her family home she brushed out and tied back her then brown h...
2025-01-28 15:14:07 +0000 UTC View PostMonths before Saphienne stood in the parlour and answered the wizard, she had been examined for apprenticeship by another accomplished artist.
Gaeleath had arrived at her family home early in the morning, to be met by her mother, who brou...
2025-01-28 15:14:00 +0000 UTC View Post“What in the world? Another interruption?”
The wizard had remained seated in his chair when the door flew open under Saphienne’s knock, though the three elves that stood before him had jumped, surprise written on th...
2025-01-28 15:13:50 +0000 UTC View PostWith all the options Saphienne had before her, even Filaurel thought it strange when the young elf chose tailoring as her next art. The girl had an extremely keen mind, and while there was a certain creativity involved in designing clothes, t...
2025-01-28 15:13:22 +0000 UTC View Post